Ian Tuason Felt Haunted Shooting Audio-Based Horror Movie ‘Undertone’ in His Home. Now, A24 and Blumhouse Are Betting Big on His Dark Visions

For an indie filmmaker, there can be a lot of advantages to filming in your own home: No need for permits, no time restrictions, and you can manipulate the surroundings any way you wish. When Ian Tuason was preparing his directorial debut, “Undertone,” it was a no-brainer choice for the low-budget film. Yet shooting a horror movie in his home had an unintended effect.

“The house got haunted, and I had to live in it,” he says. “I was the one who had to sleep in it. I got desensitized, but wasn’t comfortable.”

Perhaps the haunting was worth it, given that “Undertone” is one of the most anticipated horror movies of the year. A24 acquired the film, which is set to debut at Sundance as part of the Midnight program on Saturday, before a theatrical release on March 13.

“Undertone” has a unique hook, as it’s based around a woman named Evy (Nina Kiri), who lives with her comatose mother and records a spooky podcast in the middle of the night with her co-host, who lives in the U.K. When the pair is sent a series of distressing audio clips of a couple that sounds like they are facing some literal demons, the scary recordings start to blur the lines of reality for Evy, as listening to them might have unleashed evil on her as well.

Because of the concept, many of the scares are derived from the intricate audio messages, as well as the darkness encroaching on Evy as she’s podcasting alone. The isolation and audio storytelling create a unique sensory experience for horror fans.

Tuason, who had worked on podcasts in the past, originally conceived of “Undertone” in 2019 as an audio project.

“I was writing a found footage radio play. I was going to frame it as two podcast hosts were recording their last episode, when one of the hosts went missing,” he says. “This is the file that the police found. On that file, it’s them listening to other recordings. It’s something I wanted to do and just give it away for free.”

Like so many people, Tuason’s plans changed with the pandemic. He moved back into his parents’ house — where “Undertone” was shot — to be their caregiver when they got ill. He also began to think creatively about his situation.

“I was trying to figure out why ‘The Exorcist’ scared me so much since I was a little kid,” he says. “I figured it was because it took the safest place and thing in the world and weaponized it, via a daughter at home. I was trying to figure out for the longest time, ‘How could I find something safer and then weaponize that?’ When I started taking care of my mom, she was not only my mom, but also dependent on me. I was her primary caregiver. I looked at her and imagined, ‘What if she starts talking in a different voice?’ Then I went back into that radio play, and I said, ‘OK, what is Evy doing between recording sessions?’ Then I started writing ‘Undertone.'”

It was mission-critical for Tuason to nail the sound design of the film, given that it accounted for so much of the creepy atmosphere.

“I really had to make it clear in the edit how I wanted it to sound,” he says. “I said, ‘Whenever headphones go on, I want the sound sucked out and make people feel like they put on their noise-canceling headphones.’ That’s scary because now you don’t know if there’s anyone walking around behind you. Eventually, you start listening to recordings of a house, and you’re going to wonder if what you’re listening to is happening in the recordings or if it’s actually happening in the house. In the edit, we played around with splitting those two worlds.”

Ultimately, Tuason says he was able to process the emotions that inspired “Undertone” after finishing the film.

“It was a catharsis,” he says. “As I was writing it, I started feeling it already. It was like I was confessing. Maybe that’s the whole point of confession at church … it’s a therapy, just to get it off your chest. When I saw Nina bring Evy to life and have her perform in a way where it empathized with how I felt, that’s therapeutic too. You’re not alone. So there was a lot of catharsis going on with watching the movie, making the movie, writing the movie.”

Beyond creative fulfillment, “Undertone” has also created enough buzz to kick Tuason’s career into high gear. It was announced in December that Tuason would be helming the eighth film in the “Paranormal Activity” franchise, which is being produced by creator Oren Peli, as well as horror heavyweights James Wan and Jason Blum in the wake of their Blumhouse-Atomic Monster merger. Tuason confirmed he’s also going to be writing the film, which is said to be a relaunch of the found footage series and a return to theatrical for the franchise. He says that the films are a perfect mix of his interests as an auteur.

“‘Paranormal Activity’ influenced the audio recordings in ‘Undertone’ for obvious reasons, with a couple recording themselves,” he says. “I had ideas on how I would make a pure found footage movie, and I used the best of those in ‘Undertone,’ but I still had so much more. When I was approached to make ‘Paranormal,’ I felt like I hit the jackpot, because I have all these ideas that I could now use in this.”

Tuason also says that even though he’s jumping into a long-running franchise, his chapter will still tell a personal story.

“It’s a coincidence that when they approached me, I had an idea, which was also very personal, and something I can openly talk about once it’s made,” he says. “It’ll be easy to understand where the story came from, the same way as with ‘Undertone.'”

In the meantime, Tuason says he’s looking forward to feeding off the energy and excitement from the Sundance screenings as a horror fan himself.

“It’s really tough to scare me,” he says. “So when I wrote ‘Undertone,’ it scared me. I was expecting this movie to scare people, and I was happy to see that I was right.”

Watch the “Undertone” trailer below.